It was a successful year for the San Marino High football team, and it all started with a dominant winning start, followed by a close victory against a crosstown rival, and capped off with a first Rio Hondo League title since 2018.
The Titans can check off another highlight to their season: nine players awarded with all-league honors, led by senior Coleman Morning and junior Mitch Mooney.
Morning was recognized as the Rio Hondo League Defensive Player of the Year, while Mooney was honored as the league’s Lineman of the Year.
“These kids gave everything they had, and they still were the best kids on the field every night that we played,” San Marino coach Nate Turner said. “They still were the best players on the field. Every team had to worry about our guys.”
Turner also emphasized that there were just 22 players on the varsity roster, meaning most of the players, like Morning and Mooney, had to play on both the offensive and defensive ends of the field.
“These guys never left the field,” Turner said. “They were equally as effective on one side of the ball as they were on the other. And they were just dominant. They were dominant playing on an empty tank.”
As the league’s Defensive Player of the Year, Morning recorded 8.3 tackles, tallied eight sacks per game, forced three fumbles and grabbed two interceptions. The senior was also one of the Titans’ main offensive threats and served as the team’s leading rusher, averaging 64.1 yards and scoring nine rushing touchdowns. Morning spent some time as quarterback as well, throwing for two touchdowns.
Meanwhile, Mooney did not let the opposing offense settle into a rhythm. The junior recorded nine sacks during the season, averaged eight tackles and forced three fumbles, recovering two of them.
“Those guys were like gladiators,” Turner said.
Three San Marino players received first-team honors. Titans senior Gannon Gill was selected as an offensive lineman, senior Liam Van Fossan, who led the team with 11 sacks and averaged 7.5 tackles per game, was named to the defensive line, and senior Sid Danenhauer was honored as a defensive back.
Danenhauer was also part of the all-league second team selections as a wide receiver. The senior averaged 51 yards receiving per game and led the team with 11 total touchdowns. He also intercepted six passes on defense.
Four other Titans were selected to the second team. San Marino junior Julian Solis, who averaged 29.7 yards rushing and scored five rushing touchdowns, was given running back and linebacker honors. Titans senior Felix Steinberger was recognized as a second-team honoree on the defensive line for his 16 tackles and three sacks over eight games, and senior Nathan Yarahmadi earned second-team honors as a linebacker after tallying three sacks and two interceptions on the season and averaging 6.6 tackles per game. San Marino freshman Parker Wilson earned second team accolades as a punter.
San Marino senior Mikey Yessaian, who tallied four touchdown catches, averaged 49 yards per game and grabbed three interceptions on defense, and senior Clement Truong, who recorded four sacks and averaged 4.5 tackles, were all-league honorable mentions.
“These kids performed out of their minds and out of their bodies,” said Turner, who completed his first year as the Titans’ head coach. “To be able to go into a game where you’re always the smaller team, always, by numbers and by size, and to find a way to pull it off. And not just pull it off, we dominated teams. We held teams under an average of 10 points a game, which was the best, not just in the Rio Hondo League, but the whole San Gabriel Valley. Our defense was stout, and it was led by those guys — Coleman, Mitch, Liam, Sid, Nate, Clem and Julian [and Nick Escamillia].”
San Marino concluded the season with an 8-3 overall record and a 4-1 mark in league. The Titans finished the season with a three-way share of the Rio Hondo League title alongside Monrovia and South Pasadena.
“To win a league championship in the first year, I did not expect that,” Turner said. “I expected to compete because I didn’t know what my audience looked like. I had no idea what the other teams looked like in reference to our team. You can watch film, but you don’t really know what a team really looks like until you see them against your team.”
San Marino opened the season on a three-game winning streak before dropping its first contest to Crescenta Valley. Turner said that was a turning point in the season.
“These guys hit a switch inside of them,” said Turner of the team’s first loss. “They really were out for revenge and everybody that we played was Crescenta Valley. Everybody.”
The Titans followed their first loss of the season with five straight victories. The winning streak included a key victory against crosstown rival South Pasadena, which was on a five-game unbeaten run.
“That was the coming out party for this season,” Turner said. “Once we beat South Pasadena, we knew we got a chance to win league, and we just went for it.”
Added Turner, “I was super happy for our board and our district who got some bragging rights. When it came to us winning and beating those guys in South Pasadena, they were a first-class act. The coaches there were first class, their administration was first class. They treated us with respect and dignity and sportsmanship. It was a great environment. It was a great experience, and I was really excited and proud to be part of that.”
San Marino clinched at least a share of the league title with a victory against Temple City and had the chance to win the crown outright against Monrovia, but the Wildcats held off the Titans in the league finale.
The Titans earned a spot in the CIF Southern Section Division X playoffs, but they fell to Redlands in the opening round of the postseason.
“I didn’t know what to expect when I first arrived,” Turner said. “We weren’t the biggest kids, we weren’t the strongest kids, we weren’t the fastest kids. I like to say we were the closest kids, we were the smartest kids, and we played together and we played for each other.”
First published in the Dec. 28 issue of the San Marino Tribune
